You are here

Best Buy Completely Screws Up LittleBigPlanet Release

You may have heard about LittleBigPlanet. It's only one of the most anticipated games this year. In order to increase anticipation, Sony released several preorder bonuses that were given to various retailers.

Best Buy got a special downloadable Nariko SackGirl, a costume for your character.

Best Buy's response? Canceling everyone's preorder and requiring people to call them to reorder the game. (Note: I'm not 100% sure how stable that link is.)

This email is a follow up to the email that was sent on 10/20/08 regarding your purchase of LittleBigPlanet. The manufacturer is recalling the game due to a content issue and your order has been stopped. As a result, your order will be cancelled if you haven't already cancelled it, and you will not be charged for this item. If you would like to reorder the game, please contact Customer Care toll free at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289).

Erk? Why cancel the preorder instead of just delaying it?!

OK, so fine, I call the number and redo the preorder. If you read the thread linked above, you'll already know the next part, but:

The item listed below is not yet available to be shipped. We expect to ship it within the next 1-2 weeks. We will ship the item sooner if it becomes available.

Yep, it's backordered. So because Sony pulled the game, and because Best Buy responded by canceling everyone's order, people who preordered from Best Buy get to wait until mid-November to actually receive the game.

But wait, there's more.

With the game released, there is special downloadable content only available during this week.

If you preordered through Best Buy, and don't manage to score a copy somewhere else, you lose that content!

It's also unclear whether those of us who preordered with Best Buy through the website will get the preorder bonus any more. Signs point to no.

Neither Best Buy nor Sony have released any sort of statement on this issue. Hopefully they'll notice the people complaining on their forums.

Update 2008-10-28: I got an email indicating that they've shipped the game, so maybe it wasn't really backordered. Still waiting on the Nariko code.

Update 2008-10-29: The game has arrived. Amazingly enough, no Nariko code. Who would have guessed...

Update 2008-10-30: I've contacted Best Buy's customer service and they're "looking into it."

Final Update: I got the game in November. I was able to get the launch downloadable content - mainly because it took Sony so freaking long to actually release it. But the preorder bonus? Not a chance.